I've been depressed and in a midlife crisis for the past year and half that I haven't wanted to quilt, hand build, weave or embroider. I have crafted a little, but not my usual extensive whirlwind of making with clay and textiles. However, those creative muscles are slowly getting flexed, and I've been getting back into crafting, especially with the help of cooking. This weekend, I marinated chicken thighs in buttermilk, salt and hot sauce...
...simmered legumes and beans, roasted an eggplant, squeezed lemons, decanted jars of tahini, mixed and sipped a lime rickey...
...which turned into a tasty lunch of bread, dolmas and hummus until I had a hangry and menopausal temper flare up...
...but then calmed down enough to finish lunch and make the baba ghanoush and the 5-bean salad and then go do ceramics the next day with a friend to later return home to start supper by making a simple tomato salad with just heirlooms, salt, balsamic and basil...
...and dredging the buttermilk-brined chicken thighs in a flour mixture of chopped fresh rosemary, thyme, poultry seasoning for the sage, a little salt and lots of coarse ground black pepper before frying it...
...and while the fried chicken finished cooking in the oven, I peeled potatoes and boiled them with garlic before mashing them with heavy whipping cream, butter and lots of chopped scallions because I make mashed allium potatoes...
...and it was a very pleasing dinner because of a super crispy fried chicken skin which the hubs also complimented me on...
...however, I was still fervently wanting to create culinarily and while drinking my wine with a neighbor, mentioned an overwhelming wish to cook a fish stew but didn't think I could the next evening because I had a late afternoon meeting to which she suggested that I prep the ingredients the night before--genius--and so I chopped fennel, celery, and leeks and mentally planned a trip to the gourmet grocery shop for seafood broth before going to bed...
...but like an idiot, while grocery shopping before my meeting, I didn't sensibly look for the box of seafood broth at the seafood counter and instead was in the canned fish aisle, grabbing bottles of clam broth. No matter, I got to caramelizing the aromatics in butter and olive oil and pureeing tomatoes and garlic in my blender before combining with the clam broth and the wine I was sipping and letting it simmer on my stove for a good hour and a half before adding a combination of frozen shellfish (mussels, shrimp, octopus, calamari) and Pacific rockfish...
...which made for a beautiful tasting dinner of bouillabaisse, lavishly buttered artichoke bread and lots more glasses of Albariño. Of course, I shared my seafood meal with my neighbor who proclaimed it "so good."
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